Jesse Jackson Lifts Obama by Sinking Himself

In 1984 I voted for Jesse Jackson for president. Now I can hardly believe that.

Today Jackson is reeling from a dumb, spiteful gaffe in an off-camera interview in which he not only tried to undermine Barak Obama in the African American community, but reportedly added he’d “like to cut his nuts off.”

American Rhetoric

Jesse Jackson at the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco.

Nice talk, Reverend.

The result is that Jackson looks like an out-of-touch old timer, a political has-been that has never moved beyond the old themes, and resents anyone who has. If anyone had any doubt about how this was playing in the new world of racial politics, they need only look at the immediate, stinging rebuke issued by by a national co-chair of Obama’s presidential campaign.

“I’m deeply outrated and disappointed in Reverend Jackson’s reckless statements about Senator Barack Obama,” he said. “He should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself.”

The man who made those statements is African-American, a congressman, and . . . oh yes . . . Jesse Jackson’s son.

It is hard to believe that there was a time when Jackson seemed to represent a new direction in politics. The 1984 Democratic convention was in San Francisco and Jackson gave a barn-burner of a speech at Moscone Center that had the crowd roaring.

In fact, Jackson’s speech is rated #12 in the American Rhetoric list of top 100 speeches, just behind the terrific keynote address that Mario Cuomo gave at that same convention. (Cuomo, it turned out, should have been the nominee. He couldn’t have done worse than Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, who only won a single state in the general election.)

At that moment, on the national stage, Jackson seemed inspirational and transformative. He spoke of heeding the “call of conscience, redemption, healing and unity.” That speech, and the dramatic idea of a black president, sold me and a lot of other people. Jackson got 21 percent of the primary vote that year, a remarkable total when you look back on it.

But he also put his foot in it in a slur that forshadows this week’s nasty remark. In another supposedly off-the-record crack he referred to New York as “Hymietown.” And now, when I look back at that 1984 speech, and a reference in it to his mis-steps and hurtful language, I wonder what in the world I was thinking.

In the 1984 speech Jackson apologizes for any hurt he caused and tries to excuse it by saying there were times, “when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell has lost its resonance.”

Really? Joy bell?

Today there is a new African-American candidate, known for his soaring rhetoric. He’s facing some racial opposition from those who haven’t moved beyond the 50s.

But there may also be those who remember Jackson’s presidential run and how disappointing his legacy has turned out to be. They may be wondering if Obama is another Jesse Jackson.

Luckily, Jackson has managed to do what no speech or policy paper could accomplish. It’s a touchy topic, to say that the old themes in the African American political game plan aren’t working. When comedian Bill Cosby stands up and calls out the black community to hold fathers accountable and to prize education, he takes a lot of heat.

Obama’s gotten some of the same from his “any fool can have a baby,” speech, which Jackson called “talking down” to the black community.

But with this last unpleasant episode, Jackson has made it easy. As many have said, his swipe at Obama may help the Democratic nominee.

After Obama won this year’s South Carolina primary, former president Bill Clinton famously dismissed the victory by saying that “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988,” implying that the two were similar candidates . . . marginal and not serious.

This week Jackson made the distinction Obama’s campaign must have wished it could advance . . . Obama’s no Jesse Jackson.

Ring the joy bell somebody. This may be Jackson’s final influential act on the American political stage.